--------Update 12/10/16---------

Full review can also be found on my blog! :)

Wink Poppy Midnight was a book I read in November that I really had no intention of reading. But seeing that beautiful cover at the library, I just couldn't help myself. I have very mixed feelings about this novel, and most of it I actually didn't like.

WHAT I LIKED
The best things about this book for me were the mood and the setting. I loved the countryside, forested, farmhouse, damp-piney-undergrowth kind of feel. It manages to have this spooky yet very cozy feeling for the entire novel, which honestly was a big reason why I stuck with it to the end. There's also a lot of magical realism in this book, which was something I don't see too often but enjoy when I do. There are elements of fortune telling, tarot card reading, haunted houses, and forest spirits.

Another thing I liked was the author's prose – for the most part it was very beautiful and lyrical. The way she described the settings were especially fantastic. Initially, I also really enjoyed the characters. For most of the novel, I thought the characters were pretty strong. At least for the fact that they had consistent personalities, and I had very distinct reactions to them and the things they did.

WHAT I DISLIKED
Sadly there were a lot of things I disliked about em>Wink Poppy Midnight. Actually... it was probably one of the less enjoyable books I've read this year. I did actually mostly enjoy it for the first 60% of the story... and then things got weird. And annoying.

So while I intially enjoyed the characters, I quickly came to really dislike Midnight. I thought he was really wishy-washy, and it annoyed me how he couldn't be assertive at all. Poppy is really abusive to him, and basically just using him for sex - even when he shows interest in other people, he won't say no to Poppy. His relationship to Poppy also felt very unrealistic: she's able to just crawl in his window for most of the story, and he just lets her do it with resigned acceptance. Like, dude... lock your window??

While I did really enjoy a lot of the writing, and I thought a lot of it was really beuatiful and luscious... other aspects of it were just plain annoying. For instance, (and with Poppy's POV especially), there was constant repeating repeating repeating of words words word for emphasis emphasis emphasis. I really hate that whenever I see this used in any book, because to me it feels really lazy. I'm not a great writer, but I knowit's possible to emphasize thoughts and ideas without repetition. One other aspect of the writing that I found to be distracting, was in Wink's POV chapters. She is constantly talking in metaphor. Wink is very interested in fairy tales, so she uses fairy tales to describe what is happening or how she's feeling. The problem with this for me was that many of the stories used as metaphors were made up... so you kind of have to guess how it relates to what's going. I found it very distracting.

And finally, the worse part of this book was the ending – it totally ruined this book for me. The ending is very sudden and extremely vague. I don't mind having the message of a book be very subtle, but whatever message was trying to be conveyed by the ending, I couldn't pick up on at all. Additionally, the characters suddenly do a complete 180 in personality. They end up completely different from how they are for most of the book. At this point I was like...



Part of the story's purpose was to point out that in reality, people aren't just cookie-cutter stereotypes – such as "hero" or "villain" – but still. Most normal people don't have COMPLETELY different personalities all of a sudden. It reads like a last-minute decision, and felt like a cheap way of creating a plot twist.

And then finally, the actual ending comes, and it literally made no sense to me at all. It makes so little sense, that I thought I had missed something, or maybe some pages got torn out of my book. There was nothing satisfying about the ending, and absolutely no closure. It felt like it ended in the middle of a chapter. It ends THAT abruptly. Ugh. Overall, there was just so much more to this story that I wanted, but didn't get.



CONCLUSIONS
When I started this book I thought it had a lot of promise. I was excited about the setting, and the writing that was flowery in just the right ways. But the characters don't stay true to themselves, and the ending was a major disappointment: it tries to send a deep message (of which I couldn't determine) by being vague, and left me extremely unsatsified. Overall, the ending made this book very weak. On Goodreads, I initially gave this book three stars, but after writing this review and thinking about it more, I have to give this book two stars. I wouldn't recommend really recommend it to anyone, unless you want to experience the frustration yourself.

Final rating: ⭐️⭐️ ( )

3.5 or 4 stars??? Hard decision. I'm not sure I "get" books like these. This was an odd fairy tale of a book w/ a cool atmosphere, but with characters that feel fictional.

This is the story of 3 teens-- Wink, Poppy, and Midnight. Midnight has been in love with Poppy for years, but Poppy is all about Poppy. Now he's moved in next door to Wink and her large, wild family. Wink is child-like and tells fairy tales, and something about her interests Midnight. He's also desperate to get over Poppy, and she's all too happy to help him get revenge on "the Wolf" (Poppy).

In this story nothing is as it seems. Events unfold, but it's unclear what intentions each of the character's have. It'll keep you guessing-- Who exactly is the hero of this book?

My Thoughts:
First of all this book was giving me MAJOR Cover Lust. It's pretty much the whole reason I wanted to read the book. I actually just want them to print this design on a dress or a pair of shoes so I can wear it. While this is the perfect cover for the story, the cover was definitely the best part of this book for me.

I'm not sure I actually "get" books like this. It's kind of just about 3 teens who run around in the woods/courtryside and in 2016, I find it a little hard to relate to. Don't get me wrong, I know there are all different kinds of people out there, but I kind of want/expect YA's to act like YA's a little bit. When I was in my prime teen years cell phones were just coming in, the internet was dial-up, and there was no social media-- but we did NOT run around in the woods. We begged our parents for their cars and drove around. We went to underage dance clubs, tried to find someone who would buy us beer, and tried to figure out where all the boys were hanging out. We sat in our bedrooms and watched MTV and called each other to talk about the newest music videos. Obviously times have changed a little bit from that, but still....

The thing about this book is it's all about atmosphere, not about plot. And it's a pretty cool atmosphere to immerse yourself in if you can let yourself go in it. I don't think I'm one of those people though. I need order and sense and explanations in my stories. I don't think I'm SUPER rigid, but I'm not as go-with-the-flow as this book needed me to be. The writing was great-- it gave the book just the right feel that it needed, but I need more than cool writing and beautiful prose to get involved in a story.

It's hard to talk about anything that happens in the book because you kind of need to NOT know in order to fully enjoy it. Because the people start out one way and by the end they supposedly change into something else?? At least that's what I got out of it. It's basically a "modern day" fairy tale where you can't trust who the good guys and bad guys are. But in the end I just ended up kind of confused, so if someone who read this wants to explain it to me, I'd be down to talk.

One thing for sure is-- I HATED Poppy. Not matter what happened and where she ended up, I still hate her and I really don't think there is anything the author could do to make me feel otherwise. Everything Leif says about her, I was nodding my head like crazy.

OVERALL: I liked reading something different, but I just don't "get" books like this. It's fairy tale-like and full of atmosphere, but I wanted more. I think a lot of people would be into this type of book because it's so different, but I need more order and sense in my books. [b:The Raven Boys|17675462|The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1459349126s/17675462.jpg|18970934] is a series that has these elements, but has a lot more story. I would more recommend that if you are looking for this type of book.

My Blog:

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I loved this, and I'm still thinking about it. I do feel like the ending will frustrate some of my students. ( )

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke is a quirky, whimsical young adult novel that is part mystery, part romance and part fairy tale. With cast of interesting characters and an unusual (and intriguing) storyline, this fast paced read is impossible to put down.

Wink, Poppy and Midnight are classmates whose lives become intertwined after Midnight Hunt becomes neighbors with Wink Bell. Midnight is a sweet young man whose love for Poppy is unrequited but that does not stop them from sleeping together. Poppy is a manipulative, mean girl who makes no effort to hide that she is only sleeping with Midnight because the boy she really loves wants nothing to do with her. Wink is a dreamy young woman who helps take care of her younger siblings and more often than not, she has her nose buried in book and her head in the clouds. Midnight is enchanted by Wink and once Poppy realizes his affection for her is waning, she devises a plan to exact revenge on Wink. From the novel's tagline, readers know to look for a hero, a villain and a liar, but exactly which character fills which role?

Midnight is the most grounded and normal of the three teenagers. He is going through a bit of a rough patch since his mom and older brother have recently moved to Paris so his mother can research her next novel. The separation may or may not signal an impending divorce and this uncertainty definitely weighs on his mind. Midnight is surprised but relieved by his interest in Wink but extricating himself from his arrangement with Poppy is a little more complicated and difficult than he thought it would be.

Poppy makes no apologies for her cruel streak and she embraces her dark side. She has a circle of loyal friends who are devoted to her and do whatever she asks without question. While nothing really seems to faze her, she is heartbroken that the boy she wants feels nothing but contempt for her. Although Poppy really does not want Midnight, she does not want Wink to have him either.

Wink is very a unique young woman. She is unflappable and she is unconcerned with other people's opinions of her. She is free-spirited and capricious but she has a good sense of who she is and what she wants. Wink loves to read and she tends to view the world through the lenses of the books that she reads.

Wink Poppy Midnight is written from each of the character's perspectives and their voices are unique and quite distinctive. The story itself is quite atmospheric and April Genevieve Tucholke brings the characters and various settings vibrantly to life. The storyline is engaging and while at first it seems to be a straight forward coming of age type tale, it morphs into a somewhat twisted story of revenge only to become a mystical mystery with seemingly supernatural elements. Despite a rather confused, convoluted conclusion, it is an enjoyable, if somewhat nonsensical, young adult novel that I liked and recommend to readers of all ages.
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Would recommend to reluctant readers who might enjoy relationship drama in high school. Very character driven. Just the right amount of tension. You can guess what'll happen. And it won't be what you think. ( )